Milk kefir grains by snail mail

I imagine all sorts of weird and wonderful things are sent by snail mail but this has got to be one of the strangest packages I’ve received: milk kefir grains sent via Australia Post from Wongan Hills.

I recently attended a mushroom workshop in Fremantle with my old school friend, George, whose mum, Kathy, also came along. We got chatting about all things food related, particularly growing and fermenting, and she mentioned she had kefir grains aplenty. Having just dipped a toe in the fermenting world recently with my purchase of “The Art of Fermentation” book, I hadn’t yet tried kefir. So Kathy kindly offered to send me some in the mail. I was dubious it would survive the trip but it showed up looking (and smelling) OK so I gave it a go.

Two batches later and my dog’s gut flora are probably singing but mine still haven’t benefited from it yet. Perhaps I’m a little slow on the uptake but this is a quick turnaround and I keep over-fermenting it so it tastes BLERGHH! Or maybe that’s how it’s supposed to taste? I really don’t know but I’m giving it yet another try.